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The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher Paperback – February 23, 1978

by Lewis Thomas (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 377 ratings
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Elegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Lewis Thomas's profoundly humane vision explores the world around us and examines the complex interdependence of all things.  Extending beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships, this provocative book explores in personal, poetic essays to topics such as computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine.  Lewis Thomas writes, "Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social species, you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us."
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    160 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  4. Publication date
    February 23, 1978
  5. Grade level
    12 and up
  6. Reading age
    18 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    7.75 x 5.02 x 0.47 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    9780140047431
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0140047431
  10. Lexile measure
    1320L
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lewis Thomas was a physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, he was the dean of Yale Medical School and New York University School of Medicine, and the president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute. He wrote regularly in the New England Journal of Medicine, and his essays were published in several collections, including The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher, which won two National Book Awards and a Christopher Award, and The Medusa and the Snail, which won the National Book Award in Science. He died in 1993.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0140047433
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reissue edition (February 23, 1978)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780140047431
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140047431
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1320L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 5.02 x 0.47 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 377 ratings

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Lewis Thomas

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
377 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

The Spinozanator
5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic of Science Reading From 1974
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2006
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This book consists of 29 stand-alone essays, beautifully written and previously published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" during the early seventies.

From the first chapter: "The viruses, instead of being single-minded agents of disease and death, now begin to look more like mobile genes...We live in a dancing matrix of viruses; they dart, rather like bees, from organism to organism, from plant to insect to mammal to me and back again, and into the sea, tugging along pieces of this genome, strings of genes from that, transplanting grafts of DNA, passing around heredity as though at a great party."

Although there is no continuity from chapter to chapter, there are consistent threads of thought as the author free associates:

1.There is a joyful attitude about science and discovery and abundant tidbits about the goings on of living things.

2.There is constant reference to the interaction, symbiosis, and co-operative living arrangements amongst the different species.

3.There are numerous references to the mindless activities of ants, bees, and termites, whose activities create sophisticated, developed projects without any evidence of central control. These examples are repeatedly compared to humans and their social activities, with the human emphasis being on language.

4.The cell is the unit of life, complete with all its intricate inner workings. The cell membrane (cell wall in plants) is the protective layer that makes this unit of life possible.

In the first chapter and frequently throughout, the author wants to think of the earth as a kind of organism, but he can't make it work - too big, too complex, too many working parts without visible connections. Then in the last chapter, a better analogy emerges. The earth is like a huge cell and the protective atmosphere that shields us from meteors and cosmic rays is our cell membrane.

This fine book is a precursor to books from the likes of Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, and Stephen Jay Gould. Reading the chapters randomly is not a bad idea - each one is only four to six pages long and each gives the reader plenty to think about. Amazingly, after 30 years, there is a little - but not much - in this book that is out of date. If you are a little rusty on biology, have your "Oxford Dictionary of Science" handy. First Class.
25 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Dated but really fascinating read.
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2023
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Fascinating read; I learned about mitochondria, without mitochondria in our cells helping them we couldn’t move. Did you know that organelles are teeny tiny organs within the mitochondria that inhabit almost all the cells in the human body. Mitochondria started as viruses that hitched a ride on cells in a symbiotic way eons ago and now there is us, plants (yes, even plants) and all animals. As earthlings we are all related. Really cool.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Informed and inforing!
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2023
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Very stylish discussions of a range of topics.
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The Ginger Man
4.0 out of 5 stars Science for interested non-scientists
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2006
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I selected this book from the Modern Library list of Top 100 Non-Fiction books with the trepidation of a non technical person with only moderate interest in science. Mr. Thomas, however, immediately disarms the non technical mind and proceeds to fascinate as he presents the very familiar in totally new perspectives. His description of our bodies as a system of mitochondria pursuing their own interests with total disinterest of our consciousness as an entity is startling while, at the same time, it becomes immediately obvious. A discussion of disease as a "biologic misinterpretation of borders" by microscopic entities also causes the reader to see the well known in new ways.

There is enough author left over

to leave us with some straight-forward observations: "The great secret known to internists...is that most things get better by themselves." Or: "If an idea cannot move on its own , pushing it doesn't help; best to let it lie there."

Thomas' last 2 sections leave both the secular and non-secular with a strong affirmation of the unliklihood of the miracle of life. Overall, this is a brief (150 page) book that deserves a wide readership.
17 people found this helpful
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Patricia A. McKnight
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully engrossing portrayal of the fraught period which led to an international catastrophe -- with well developed characte
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2018
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I spent two afternoons -- and the early mornings which followed -- reading this book. Truly I could not put it down. It is in many ways a thriller, and it is much more than that. It is rather like calling Eric Ambler's masterpiece, Coffin for Demetrios, a thriller. Ms. Franklin creates marvelous characters and uses them to show us the last days of the Weimar Republic and the period during which Hitler rose to power. Along the way we learn how insidious the process was; that it did not happen overnight as an all too casual for Hitler's timeline may lead us to think. And in the midst of all this we have the mystery of Ekaterinburg's House of Special Purpose in which the Romanovs were imprisoned and subsequently murdered. Did the Grand Duchess Anastasia survive that slaughter?
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Kelli
5.0 out of 5 stars Reading thoughts
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2020
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Ever think of comparing termite society to the language system of humans? Or comparing the composition of bacteria to a mystical beast? This book is brilliant at how informational it is, and the most outstanding part is that it makes connections between biological facts and from those connections elicit the lessons of life. Though it is a book published thirty years ago, I still feel enlightened by the wisdom that this book reveals.
13 people found this helpful
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DG
3.0 out of 5 stars The myth of the self
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2011
A great read for the scientist and poet alike, The Lives of a Cell sits at the busy cross streets of sociology, biology, and language. No one would argue with the fact that we, as humans, are social animals but Thomas goes one step further asserting "the whole dear notion of one's own self - marvelous old free-willed, free-enterprising, autonomous, independent, isolated island of a Self - is a myth." Like an ant, only in the context of the entire anthill do we each take on meaning, serving as an organelle in the function of the whole organism which appears to have a collective conscious. Thomas also applies the language of genetics to the genetics of language, purporting language is itself a species, with a genesis and antiquity all its own. Like mitochondria, language is a constantly evolving sub-organism carried along transiently by our most singly human artifact (culture), supported by our biological disposition for grammar and syntax, and equally as vital to our existence.
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Top reviews from other countries

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JM-BCN
5.0 out of 5 stars para entrar en el mundo cellular a través de la imaginació fertil d'un científico
Reviewed in Spain on April 6, 2023
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Escrito d'una manera muy planera pero a la vez muy poetica
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An Anand Gandhi's recommendation
Reviewed in India on September 13, 2022
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Many a times this book is recommended by Anand Gandhi.
4 people found this helpful
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Cliente de Amazon
4.0 out of 5 stars .
Reviewed in Mexico on November 5, 2018
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pietro cardinale
5.0 out of 5 stars "Le vite di una cellula" nuove riflessioni
Reviewed in Italy on August 19, 2017
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Il libro era in buone condizioni, l'autore ha scritto un saggio che apre la mente a riflessioni stimolanti anche morali sullo studio delle cellule
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Big Bill
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun read , not at all as stuffy as the title sounds.
Reviewed in Canada on May 10, 2015
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As I understand it these essays were written for the New England Journal of Medicine. Each one is not too long ( so not hard to get through ) and they are on various topics , written from the viewpoint of a biologist. Cleverly written , they are very entertaining reading , not perhaps what you would expect from a Journal of Medicine. The author has a very elaborate vocabulary , so I recommend having a dictionary handy ( or the internet ). Much more fun to read than it sounds. Copyrighted in 1974 , so his observations and predictions have a bit of a science fiction flavour as you get to see how some things worked out now that it is forty years later. My favourite is a piece about a tribe in Africa called the Ik as a microcosm of the world at large. an informative a fun read.
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